US Markets
Oil shock hits stocks as defense trade takes the lead
A jump in crude and a rise in volatility leave Wall Street mixed, with energy the lone sector clearly in the green.
U.S. stocks end the session split. The S&P 500 falls 0.3% to 7,482.71, the Dow Jones drops 1.1% to 52,348.3906, and the Russell 2000 loses 0.9% to 2,956.3887. The Nasdaq Comp. ekes out a 0.2% gain to 25,870.6523, but the tape still reads cautious, not confident.
Energy leads the board, up 1.8%, after WTI crude jumps 6.0% to 74.64 and Brent climbs 6.7% to 79.14. CNBC Markets headlines say U.S. military launches new Iran strikes, while MarketWatch says oil prices extend gains after hours as U.S. forces conduct additional strikes on Iran. That helps explain why the market leans toward defense and away from broad risk.
The rest of the sector map is red. Materials falls 2.6%, Financials drops 1.9%, Discretionary loses 1.8%, and Real Estate slips 1.7%. Tech is up 1.2%, but that is not enough to offset weakness across most of the market. The VIX climbs 4.8% to 16.9, while the 9-day VIX jumps 16.5% to 14.41.
The day’s stock list shows the same split. NVDA gains 3.7% and SMCI rises 7.3%, but some high-volume names like AAL fall 4.0%, and the losers list is heavy with double-digit declines. Put-call ratios for SPY and QQQ both sit at 1.16, with put volume above call volume in each.